In what could be a further sign of the the National Rifle Association’s diminishing power, a key gun rights group has split with the NRA on the issue of background checks,

As The Washington Post reports,[1] the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which identifies itself as the second-largest gun rights group in the country behind the NRA, said it supported a compromise in the U.S. Senate drafted by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-Ill., and Patrick Toomey, R-Pa.

Other positive developments related to the Manchin-Toomey deal included initial support from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and potential support from several House Republicans who’ve had NRA support in the past.

An email from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to its supporters explained the group’s decision:

“If you read the Manchin-Toomey substitute amendment, you can see all the advances for our cause that it contains like interstate sales of handguns, veteran gun rights restoration, travel with firearms protection, civil and criminal immunity lawsuit protection, and most important of all, the guarantee that people, including federal officers, will go to federal prison for up to 15 years if they attempt to use any gun sales records to set up a gun registry.”

With the likely death of proposals in Congress to ban assault-style weapons or to even limit the manufacture and sale of large-capacity magazines, expectations have been greatly lowered. The fact that even some gun rights supporters and Republicans are willing to buck the NRA provides the best hope in years that even extremely modest gun control proposals may succeed.